


red light

by tinygrunt



Category: SHINee
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Other, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 12:48:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7172405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinygrunt/pseuds/tinygrunt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taemin really, really wants to kiss Jonghyun. </p>
<p>Inspired by Jonghyun's "RED," dedicated to taketaemtoyourleader on tumblr. </p>
<p>In this fic, Jonghyun is nb (genderfluid, specifically) and also is wearing a crop top so how could you refuse???</p>
            </blockquote>





	red light

The room is crowded, air heavy with sweat. The walls flicker dimly with the flashing of the alternating colors of the strobe, and Taemin can see (and smell) the slickness of perspiration collecting on almost every surface. It’s so loud that he can’t even hear when Jonghyun turns to him and practically shouts: “Let me know if or when you want to grab some air or get out of here. I know this is a lot; I probably won’t be able to stay here very long, either.” 

Taemin doesn’t have time to respond before Jonghyun follows Jinki and Kibum through the fray and drags him along by the hand. Their grip is as strong as their hand is small, and Taemin would be damned if he let them go. 

The song that plays in the background is foreign to him, probably something American, but he can’t be sure. His muddled mind can barely keep up with the words, not when he’s pouring all his focus into keeping up with Jonghyun and their glittery crop top. Kibum is pulling Jinki up onto a coffee table; Jonghyun finds a pocket of space on the ground for the both of them while the two other men begin to dance not too far away. 

Taemin uncharacteristically trips over his own two feet just following behind them. Fuck, he’s drunk. 

Jonghyun releases his hand as they raise their arms a bit and start to move like the people around them, but with slightly less finesse. It makes him laugh, it’s silly, but Taemin is also near immobilized. He watches Jonghyun and Jonghyun watches him, gives him the slightest, sneakiest smile, their eyes glinting with flirtation Taemin well recognizes. _Is it real?_ Jonghyun mouths something to him that he doesn’t understand. He wants to dance with the elder in some capacity, but his body won’t listen to his head. 

Taemin lets his eyes wander for the first time that night. Jonghyun is the most gorgeous person he’s ever seen—so much vibrancy contained in one small body. They’re the most alluring person in the room, skin like fire, and suddenly Taemin is freezing. The way their narrow hips swivel makes Taemin’s mouth run dry. 

He looks up. Jinki is giving him a pointed look from his position on the precariously shaking table, and Taemin knows that he should be making some sort of attempt at flirting back at Jonghyun. He’s trying. He looks at them. They’re giving him a lazy grin that lets him know that they know he was looking. They mouth the words again, and he gives them a slow blink because he doesn’t know what they’re saying, _god, what are they saying?_

“Come on!” 

More people crowd them and they’re pushed closer and closer together. He is probably going to suffocate, but he’d much rather do so with Jonghyun’s body on his. Jonghyun spins around as if they’re going to say something to Jinki, but they never make it back to facing Taemin; suddenly, they’re moving against him. They tip their head back to lean lightly against Taemin’s shoulder, and their back is flush with his chest, and they _keep dancing._

_“Come on!”_

Taemin figures out how to breathe and fills his lungs with the damp air. He doesn’t know exactly how to go about this despite the hundreds of scenarios playing out in his head. Jonghyun wants this, right? _This is okay, right?_ He settles his hands clumsily on their hips, lightly at first, to test the waters. From what he can see of their face, they’re smiling. He settles more solidly against them and he nearly combusts. He grips them more firmly, then, and allows them to set the pace. This is overwhelming. He’s consumed by how much he wants this. 

Jonghyun moves their head just a bit and he desperately wants to lean down and do something—whisper in their ear, kiss their neck or cheek or hair, anything. What would Jongin say? He’s so close to kissing them. They bring a hand up and behind them a bit to wrap a hand around the back of his neck, pulling him closer, exactly where Taemin wanted to be. Their cheek turns a bit and he wonders if _they’re_ going to kiss _him,_ but then he once more recognizes their lips moving in speech. He leans in closer. 

“Is this okay?” They ask him, twice, probably to make sure he hears. 

Taemin feels the usual, painful swell of affection in his chest. He nods into the strange softness of their constantly-bleached-then-dyed-pink hair. “This is… uh, more than okay.” 

Drunk Taemin is a lot more forthcoming than Sober Taemin. 

They laugh. He doesn’t know how he hears that over the music, but he does, and he wonders if they think he’s pathetic. If they do, they don’t show it. Jinki is smirking at them over Kibum’s shoulder. What is he thinking? Jonghyun grinds against him and he refocuses on them, only them. No second-guessing.

He’s almost embarrassed by how thoroughly he’s enjoying this, how much his body is reacting to them. Each press of their ass against his crotch sends chills crawling across his skin and heat to his cheeks. They know what they’re doing; there’s no doubt in his mind. Flirtation between the both of them will no longer be innocent, if it even ever was. Taemin moves to the other side of their neck and leaves a light kiss against the sweat-slick skin of their shoulder. He traces the path from their shoulder to their neck with his lips, emboldened by the arching of their back and vigor of their hips. He thinks he hears them say his name. 

They fit so nicely with him, so tiny, so tough, so bright. He feels like he’s buzzing, like they’re resonating by being this close. He wonders what it would be like to kiss them. He wants to kiss them. He wants nothing else in the whole world more than he wants to kiss Jonghyun. They say his name again. This time, he’s sure of it. 

Jonghyun turns to face him, twists in his hold. Did he do something wrong? He doesn’t think so, because they’re smiling, and _god damn it;_ Taemin has never seen anyone so beautiful. They say his name again. There’s barely any space between them, save for where they’ve leaned back so they can actually look at him. Their eyes glow and glisten and their fingers curl around his neck and he wants to kiss them, desperately, so desperately.

“Taem. Taemin,” they repeat, laughing. They stand on their tiptoes to get closer to his ear and nearly lose their balance. “Do you want to go somewhere else? More private?”

He nods.

Jonghyun leads him back out the front door, and on the way, someone throws out a slurred, “leaving so soon?” They ignore that as well as the briskness of the late fall air, and Taemin wonders if he should offer them his jacket. The chill isn’t too intense, but would get to Jonghyun quickly with just their crop top and cut-off shorts. They head downstairs and pull him around to the side of the building, not too far from where Jinki parked their car earlier that night. 

“This is at least a bit more quiet?” they question. He can still hear the pop-punk-electro mix that they’d just been dancing to, but it’s no longer muting their words. “Sorry. I just. Thought we should discuss things before…”

_Before we go any further and potentially ruin our friendship. Before one of us gets hurt. Before…_ “Did I do something wrong?” He just knows he did something wrong. 

They shake their head, very quickly, very intensely. “No,” they supply, “no, Taemin, not at all. I just. We’ve never really seriously talked about. Things.”

They’re doing that thing where they get nervous and scratch their neck and stammer through their sentences. Jonghyun sighs and pivots away from facing him, makes their way to lean against the side of the apartment complex. They slide down the wall to sit, undoubtedly a side effect of the fact that they can’t handle their alcohol, and they motion for him to join them. He does. “Things?” Taemin asks. They’re going to give him a heart attack. 

“Like,” they look as if he’s going to give them one, as well. “Like how we’ve been, well, circling around each other since we first met. I mean, you have to know that I’m attracted to you; you have to know that I’m interested in you romantically.”

“And I’m… same?” he breathes, mentally cursing his inability to pull the right words from thin air. He surprises himself with that admission, though, as well as the fact that it did not cause the actual vault of the sky to collapse on him. “Does this mean that you, uh, that we should?”

Jonghyun looks at him and shrugs, and he knows that they know what’s trapped in his head. “That’s up to you, Taemin. I’m interested in you and I’m more than happy to act on that in the same way that I’m fully prepared to put those feelings aside and just stay friends if you don’t want to pursue things.”

How are they so coherent right now?. 

“Jonghyun, I—” _shit._ What should he say? What is he going to say?

God help him. He’s choking.

They’re watching him with wide, expectant eyes, biting down on their lower lip as they shiver in the cold. He can imagine exactly what’s going through their head as he hesitates to respond. By no means did Taemin expect this tonight, but here they are. He can’t get any words out. Why can’t he just say something? Their face falls bit by bit the longer he fumbles. “You...”

“We shouldn’t even be having this conversation right now,” they say, attempting to derail him. He knows they’re afraid. They get up and shake their head and he knows that they think they’re pressuring him by putting him on the spot. “We’re drunk. I’m drunk. I’m sorry.”

“Jonghyun.”

“Let’s just go back inside and find Kibum before he falls into the p—”

That’s when his head clears. He stand and catches their hand as they try to pass him, and he tugs them back to him, lightly, meaningfully, and that’s when he kisses them. Their soft gasp of breath melding with his exhale of relief lets him know that things are going to be just fine.

**Author's Note:**

> prompt me on tumblr! minearebigger.tumblr.com (shinee) or starklet.tumblr.com (multifandom)


End file.
